Amtrak train with nearly 200 passengers derails after hitting water truck on tracks in Southern California

MOORPARK, Calif. — An Amtrak prepare carrying almost 200 travellers struck a county water truck and derailed on Wednesday in Southern California, critically injuring the truck’s driver, authorities claimed.

Three of the train’s seven cars went off the tracks pursuing the collision in Moorpark, explained Ventura County Hearth Section Captain Brian McGrath. The derailed prepare automobiles remained upright on tracks adjacent to an orchard and bare sections of land.

Fourteen individuals on the train had been taken to hospitals with insignificant accidents, whilst the truck driver was taken to a trauma centre with a head injury, McGrath explained.

Sections of the demolished Ventura County Public Works truck were scattered all around the derailed educate autos. McGrath at first said the truck’s driver was thought to have gotten out of the vehicle right before the crash, but later on clarified that the instances main up to the wreck weren’t identified.

“No one’s talked to him, so the entire predicament is even now being investigated,” he said.

Mindy Faver was seated facing the rear of the practice after a journey with her mother, Shari Peterson, returning from going to family members in Oregon.

“All of a sudden: Smack!” Faver stated, describing the impression. Then Faver noticed what she later identified out was the drinking water truck’s tank tumbling past her window.

Most of the passengers were being able to get off the prepare autos on their individual or with the assist of to start with responders, McGrath said. Tv information helicopters confirmed many persons, lots of carrying luggage, milling about in a field as firefighters labored the scene.

“It could have been a good deal even worse,” Faver instructed the Ventura County Star.